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Ocelot II

(128,411 posts)
Sat Oct 25, 2025, 06:57 PM Oct 25

Wanna join me in feeling really old? I just stumbled on this list,

and I remember every single one of these things. Banks still use pneumatic tubes at their drive-through tellers, but in the early '70s I worked at a company that occupied a large, old, multi-story building, and we transmitted documents to departments on other floors with those things.

Anybody remember the x-ray machines at shoe stores, which they got rid of because they were leaking radiation? I thought they were so cool.

https://www.genealogyexplained.com/fb/blog/forgotten-things-from-1960s/

67 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
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Wanna join me in feeling really old? I just stumbled on this list, (Original Post) Ocelot II Oct 25 OP
Every single one. LuckyCharms Oct 25 #1
Roger that!!! ultralite001 Oct 25 #2
LOL! I guess you didn't have a dog who lurked under the table, hoping for a handout. Ocelot II Oct 25 #3
The poor dog had to stay outside... ultralite001 Oct 25 #5
I hated mom's succotash vapor2 Oct 25 #29
I hated to eat when I was a little kid Bayard Oct 25 #49
The food I didn't like I stuck under the refrigerator womanofthehills Oct 27 #67
Good stuff, but hip folk of all ages use clotheslines more these days than last couple of decades. Bernardo de La Paz Oct 25 #4
I loved my clothesline! I had one until I moved into this community..still have the wooden clothespins Deuxcents Oct 25 #9
For me, getting milk delivered was when someone else milked the cows..... lastlib Oct 25 #15
Didn't milk cows, but we had milk and other grocery items delivered. Habibi Oct 25 #35
Well, that was fun. Biophilic Oct 25 #6
One of the greatest advances in modern times markodochartaigh Oct 25 #7
Remember them all, but think a few were more 50s than 60s. sinkingfeeling Oct 25 #8
50's into the mid '60s, IIRC. Ocelot II Oct 25 #11
In some offices Diamond_Dog Oct 25 #30
Not where I come from genxlib Oct 26 #61
100% remember all, even though my memory is questionable nowadays. Silent Type Oct 25 #10
I remember every single one of those things. But instead of the nostalgia niyad Oct 25 #12
Those things, too. "Duck and cover," which even we kids knew meant, Ocelot II Oct 25 #14
'Duck and cover' wasn't meant to protect students Oeditpus Rex Oct 25 #33
"being told not to seem too smart at school because boys don't like smart girls" Diamond_Dog Oct 25 #34
In those days of girls having to wear dresses or skirts, we girls often worried more... 3catwoman3 Oct 25 #40
Um, #2 is bogus - A Mimeograph Smelled, like, well, ink. Brother Buzz Oct 25 #13
The x-ray machine is the only one I wasn't familiar with. johnp3907 Oct 25 #16
I typed this the same time you did. Irish_Dem Oct 25 #19
I don't remember the X-ray shoe fitting machines. Irish_Dem Oct 25 #17
They were in some shoe stores, also called shoe-fitting fluoroscopes. Ocelot II Oct 25 #21
Thanks, what an odd contraption. Irish_Dem Oct 25 #22
My mother was a nurse, so maybe she didn't approve of this thing. Irish_Dem Oct 25 #23
I remember every single one except the shoe store machine. Diamond_Dog Oct 25 #18
The ice trays were a bone of contention in my house Ocelot II Oct 25 #24
If you ran water over the ice trays first, Seinan Sensei Oct 25 #53
Yes, but it wasn't as much fun that way. Ocelot II Oct 25 #54
It's a wonder I don't have six toes on each foot. chowmama Oct 25 #20
Omg! 😄 Yikes! electric_blue68 Oct 25 #25
Ohioan here. I thought *everybody* had a blanket like that in their car trunk. Diamond_Dog Oct 25 #26
In Minnesota you not only had a blanket, you had (and still have) a winter kit Ocelot II Oct 25 #31
The traditional Christmas gift for my kids... ultralite001 Oct 26 #63
Not all of them. House of Roberts Oct 25 #27
thanks for the walk down memory lane vapor2 Oct 25 #28
No on the X-Ray foot shoe store box... electric_blue68 Oct 25 #32
There's a post office in the city near me Diamond_Dog Oct 25 #36
Woah! Yikes! electric_blue68 Oct 25 #44
I remember most of them. Born in 1951. 3catwoman3 Oct 25 #37
Flav-R Straws! I'd forgotten about those. They were terrible but we loved them. Ocelot II Oct 26 #62
And a baby's arm holding an apple! The Tubes BidenRocks Oct 25 #38
All but... 2naSalit Oct 25 #39
The only list I need to make me feel old Oeditpus Rex Oct 25 #41
The pneumatic mail tube system, to the umpteenth degree. . . DinahMoeHum Oct 25 #42
The pneumatic tubes also make an amusing appearance in the movie Paddington EverHopeful Oct 26 #59
Thank you Ocelot II , I remember every single one. debm55 Oct 25 #43
I used to feel old when I realized that my doctors were younger than me Wicked Blue Oct 25 #45
You bet! MuseRider Oct 25 #46
Is Item #11 Just in case JD came to visit? /nt aka-chmeee Oct 25 #47
My mother let me use her Green Stamps to get my first stereo dflprincess Oct 25 #48
We never had plastic covers either - Mom thought they were tacky - but we had neigbors who did. Ocelot II Oct 25 #50
There was a pretty famous rumor about S&H stamps in Saigon dsvajda Oct 25 #52
No thanx! Living it is making making me feel old enough already! marble falls Oct 25 #51
I still have books of green stamps & metal ice trays ,which I still use. Alwaysna Oct 25 #55
The Fuller Brush Man rickford66 Oct 25 #56
Funny Green Stamp story. boonecreek Oct 26 #57
I also remember each of the items in that article LetMyPeopleVote Oct 26 #58
Sending this post to my cousin EverHopeful Oct 26 #60
Yes, I remember all of them! Sogo Oct 26 #64
It's a very funny movie. I wish I could see it again but not on youtube. CTyankee Oct 26 #65
I remember all those items LogDog75 Oct 27 #66

ultralite001

(2,326 posts)
2. Roger that!!!
Sat Oct 25, 2025, 07:05 PM
Oct 25

My childhood secret... I hated when mom had peas + carrots for dinner...



See those tubular legs under that kitchen table??? They were the repository for a child's lifetime of discarded
vegetables... This was only discovered when we moved to a new house when I was +/- 10... Bummer that...

Thanks for the memories, Ocelot II!!!

ultralite001

(2,326 posts)
5. The poor dog had to stay outside...
Sat Oct 25, 2025, 07:09 PM
Oct 25

Mom was afraid the dog would tear up her plastic furniture covers...

🤣🤣🤣

Bayard

(27,921 posts)
49. I hated to eat when I was a little kid
Sat Oct 25, 2025, 09:28 PM
Oct 25

Our kitchen table had one of those leaf things underneath to expand it. My Mom finally figured out I had stashed everything under there from veges to hamburgers.

womanofthehills

(10,647 posts)
67. The food I didn't like I stuck under the refrigerator
Mon Oct 27, 2025, 09:32 AM
Oct 27

I was shocked when we moved to our new house and there was no food under it.

Bernardo de La Paz

(60,320 posts)
4. Good stuff, but hip folk of all ages use clotheslines more these days than last couple of decades.
Sat Oct 25, 2025, 07:07 PM
Oct 25

Wooden clothes pegs might be hard to find but I don't know. I still have what I need.

Deuxcents

(24,928 posts)
9. I loved my clothesline! I had one until I moved into this community..still have the wooden clothespins
Sat Oct 25, 2025, 07:19 PM
Oct 25

I remember my grandmother getting milk delivered and then skimming the cream off the top! I’m old!

lastlib

(27,219 posts)
15. For me, getting milk delivered was when someone else milked the cows.....
Sat Oct 25, 2025, 08:03 PM
Oct 25

... and brought the milk bucket to the house. I grew up on a working farm, milked cows til I was 40.

Habibi

(3,605 posts)
35. Didn't milk cows, but we had milk and other grocery items delivered.
Sat Oct 25, 2025, 08:40 PM
Oct 25

Milk in glass bottles. Waiting on the porch. Once or twice, the dairy or bread delivery man (it was always a man) would let us ride in his truck until his next stop, usually two doors down.

markodochartaigh

(4,689 posts)
7. One of the greatest advances in modern times
Sat Oct 25, 2025, 07:11 PM
Oct 25

was the transition from woolen blankets to microfiber blankets.
And we learned not to complain about the woolen blankets or we would hear about the old days when people would have to trample the wool in urine to get the oil off of the wool.

Ocelot II

(128,411 posts)
11. 50's into the mid '60s, IIRC.
Sat Oct 25, 2025, 07:21 PM
Oct 25

Mimeograph devices were being replaced by Xerox machines in the '60s. I was in college in the late '60s, and the library had a Xerox machine that was about the size of an industrial dumpster. You opened the lid, placed the page you wanted to copy onto the glass, closed the lid, inserted a nickel, pushed the Copy button, and waited. And waited. The machine would hum and light up, and eventually it would spit out a warm, chemical-smelling copy. If you had multiple pages to copy it would take awhile, and sometimes a line of impatient students would form behind you. But at least you didn't get that purple mimeo ink all over you.

Diamond_Dog

(39,257 posts)
30. In some offices
Sat Oct 25, 2025, 08:29 PM
Oct 25

You had a “copy girl” whose sole job was to run the copy machine for all the male executives.

genxlib

(6,043 posts)
61. Not where I come from
Sun Oct 26, 2025, 08:06 AM
Oct 26

My high school was still using mimeographs well into the early eighties

niyad

(128,789 posts)
12. I remember every single one of those things. But instead of the nostalgia
Sat Oct 25, 2025, 07:26 PM
Oct 25

of that linked site. . . .I remember the misogyny, sexism, racism, homophobia, the "red scare", hiding under desks for those stupid bomb drills. Kristin Lems' song "The 50's Sound" covers it.

Ocelot II

(128,411 posts)
14. Those things, too. "Duck and cover," which even we kids knew meant,
Sat Oct 25, 2025, 07:42 PM
Oct 25

"Put your head between your legs and kiss your ass goodbye." Being told that because I was a girl there were certain things I couldn't be when I grew up (fortunately I ignored that warning); being told not to seem too smart at school because boys don't like smart girls; during a car trip to Florida being shocked to see "White" and "Colored" signs on water fountains and not understanding why. The good old days aren't ever really the good old days.

 

Oeditpus Rex

(43,094 posts)
33. 'Duck and cover' wasn't meant to protect students
Sat Oct 25, 2025, 08:34 PM
Oct 25

who were within a few miles of ground zero. Buildings within proximate distance would be destroyed by a thermonuclear weapon's blast and heat effects.

"Duck and cover" was meant to protect students in schools outside that radius, in the suburbs, from flying glass as windows blew out, falling light fixtures, et cetera. It was also meant to give kids a bit of emotional security, like mass-shooter drills today.

Civil Defense experts came up with "Duck and Cover," not the school board or the PTA. Give them credit for knowing it wouldn't save anybody near the epicenter.

Diamond_Dog

(39,257 posts)
34. "being told not to seem too smart at school because boys don't like smart girls"
Sat Oct 25, 2025, 08:37 PM
Oct 25

Ugh. I certainly remember that.

3catwoman3

(28,248 posts)
40. In those days of girls having to wear dresses or skirts, we girls often worried more...
Sat Oct 25, 2025, 08:45 PM
Oct 25

…about the boys maybe being able to catch a glimpse of our panties while we were assuming “the position” under our desks with our butts up in the air. Even at age 12, I knew hiding under my desk wasn’t going to do a damn thing to save us from a nuclear blast.

Brother Buzz

(39,357 posts)
13. Um, #2 is bogus - A Mimeograph Smelled, like, well, ink.
Sat Oct 25, 2025, 07:41 PM
Oct 25

It’s the Ditto machine (spirit duplicator) that used that sweet solvent we loved.

By third grade, I was the classroom duplicator; for some crazy reason, they trusted me to run down to the office and run of copies on the memo machine.

johnp3907

(4,176 posts)
16. The x-ray machine is the only one I wasn't familiar with.
Sat Oct 25, 2025, 08:06 PM
Oct 25

But I still have my Snoopy lunch box!

Irish_Dem

(78,158 posts)
17. I don't remember the X-ray shoe fitting machines.
Sat Oct 25, 2025, 08:06 PM
Oct 25

Where were they located and how did they work?

Diamond_Dog

(39,257 posts)
18. I remember every single one except the shoe store machine.
Sat Oct 25, 2025, 08:06 PM
Oct 25

Mr. Diamond remembers them, though.

Those metal ice cube trays could cause some serious pain if you pinched your finger in one!

The old couple across the street were the first in our neighborhood to get a color TV. My sister and I were allowed to go over there on Sunday evenings to watch Walt Disney’s Wonderful World of Color. I thought the color TV was way cool but for some reason I never liked that Disney program, even as a kid.

I remember those pneumatic tubes in department stores.

I still have the folding card table and 4 folding chairs my mother bought with our Green stamps!

I still remember how the movie projector smelled when it was operating!

Thanks for the fun memories, Ocelot!

Ocelot II

(128,411 posts)
24. The ice trays were a bone of contention in my house
Sat Oct 25, 2025, 08:18 PM
Oct 25

because we kids would always forget to refill them and would put them back in the freezer without any water in them. I remember very well what an effort was involved to pull that lever up and break up the cubes, which would sometimes fly all over the kitchen. Later we got plastic trays where you could loosen the cubes by twisting the tray. Now, at last, I have a fridge with one of civilization's greatest inventions, an ice maker.

chowmama

(942 posts)
20. It's a wonder I don't have six toes on each foot.
Sat Oct 25, 2025, 08:12 PM
Oct 25

The Buster Brown store was where we all went to get our shoes before school started. Four kids, all in tow, and only one could be waited on at a time. The rest of us, especially me, relieved our boredom by radiating our feet. Over, and over, and over...Nobody knew any better.

However, I still have a wool car blanket. Also a full-size shovel that fits in the same area. I live in Minnesota and we don't mess around.

Diamond_Dog

(39,257 posts)
26. Ohioan here. I thought *everybody* had a blanket like that in their car trunk.
Sat Oct 25, 2025, 08:24 PM
Oct 25

In the winter time my Dad would put a bag of salt over each rear wheel inside the trunk. He said it gave you better traction and if you got stuck, presto, you just tore open the bag of salt. Instant rescue! It’s not like we all had cell phones and could call for a tow truck!

Ocelot II

(128,411 posts)
31. In Minnesota you not only had a blanket, you had (and still have) a winter kit
Sat Oct 25, 2025, 08:30 PM
Oct 25

that included a candle and matches, a flashlight and batteries, a highway flare, jumper cables, a bag of sand (I use cat litter), a tow rope and a shovel.

ultralite001

(2,326 posts)
63. The traditional Christmas gift for my kids...
Sun Oct 26, 2025, 12:24 PM
Oct 26

Winter survival kits stashed in a 5 lb coffee can (which could be used to heat water)...

Does anything still come in a 5 gallon resealable can??? The last coffee can I got
from Costco was for 3 lbs...

In the can, in addition to what was mentioned above, I would put a couple emergency
blankets, Hot Hands, tea bags + sugar, protein bars + jerky sticks.

This year they'll be getting power banks + traction boards...Y'all stay safe out there... ..

House of Roberts

(6,324 posts)
27. Not all of them.
Sat Oct 25, 2025, 08:25 PM
Oct 25

Never saw #1, #11 plastic covers weren't in our house, #17 never had one or knew anyone who did, #18 nope we had a rooftop antenna on a tall guyed mast, then cable TV showed up, #22 don't think we ever opened a bank account while I was around maybe before me, #23 no blanket in the trunk, but we were in Alabama.

vapor2

(3,496 posts)
28. thanks for the walk down memory lane
Sat Oct 25, 2025, 08:28 PM
Oct 25

I have a green stamp book still and 2 view masters. lol

electric_blue68

(25,104 posts)
32. No on the X-Ray foot shoe store box...
Sat Oct 25, 2025, 08:33 PM
Oct 25

May have heard about Green Stamps, not sure we did them.

My aunt, uncle, cousins in NJ got the glass milk bottles when i was kid.

I'm pretty sure we didn't get a toaster from the bank!

And my mom wouldn't let my dad by a color TV because at that point the color wasn't very good.
___________________________
Now the pneumatic tube was different story...
At one time in the 2010s the bank about 7 blocks away from me was in a rougher neighborhood at some point - so instead of tellers behind a counter there were pneumatic tubes for your money, deposit slip, debit card etc and the tellers were in a safe room.

Diamond_Dog

(39,257 posts)
36. There's a post office in the city near me
Sat Oct 25, 2025, 08:42 PM
Oct 25

Where the clerks at each window are behind bullet proof glass.

3catwoman3

(28,248 posts)
37. I remember most of them. Born in 1951.
Sat Oct 25, 2025, 08:42 PM
Oct 25

1. Shoe store X-ray - nope
2. Mimeograph smell - absolutely. I used to run the copies of football plays for the coach in high school. My husband called these things “dirty purples. Military term, maybe?
3. Bank pneumatic tubes - my current bank still has these. First hospital I worked in after nursing school sent things from the pharmacy this way.
4. View Master - Yup
5. Full service gas station. My dad always went to Texaco - “You can trust your car to the man who wears the star, the big bright Texaco star. 🎶. He would often ask for “a dollar’s worth.”
6. Green Stamps - my mother collected them loyally. She was raised during The Depression and anything that made it possible to spend less money was beloved by her.
7. Aluminum ice trays - h, yes. Noisy things.
8. TV sign-offs. I worked the 3-11 shift and would watch Johnny Carson and then Tom Snyder after work, and turn the lights out after the National Anthem.
9. First color TV - no specific recollection
10. Slide projectors and home movies - we did not have either one, but friends who worked for KODAK (grew up in Rochester NY) had both. My husband still has several trays of slides and his projector.
11. Plastic couch covers - a neighbor a couple doors away had these, and lamp shade covers. She did not have a velvet rope barricading the entry to her Irving room, but it felt as if she did. I don’t think anyone ever went in there.
12. Returnable soda bottles - I remember them, but we almost never bought soda, so nothing to turn in.
13. The Sears catalog - oh my, yes. My father worked for Allstate, which either owned or was owned by Sears, so we got. 10% discount for many, many years. While in high school, I got most of my school clothes from Sears. They were fashionable and well made in the 1960s. Not so much later on. I still remember some of my favorite skirt and sweater combinations. My brother and I would pore over the Christmas catalog for hours.
14. Clotheslines and wooden clothes pins - yes. My husband’s mother raised a family of 4 kids without ever having a dryer.
15. Metal lunchboxes - for sure. My mother was one of the few working-outside-the-home moms in the late 19502 and early 1960s, and in an effort for mornings not to be too busy, we would make a week’s worth of sandwiches every Sunday evening and freeze them. Mon-Fri morning - take one out of the freezer and pop it in your metal lunchboxes box and it would have thawed by lunchtime. Take it from me - egg salad on white bread does not freeze well and thaws into a disgusting, soggy mess. To this day, I cannot eat an egg salad sandwich - YUCK!
16. Dizzies - vaguely. Also straws that had a flavor chip in them that would flavor the milk as you sucked it up.
17. Chemistry sets - had one.
18. Rabbit ear and tinfoil - been there, done that.
19. Drive-ins - going to the snack bar was always the highlight
20. Milkman - when I was 5, we lived in a very old rental house that had a little metal lined box in the wall with 2 doors - one to the outside for the milkman to open and put the milk in the box, and one to the inside for us to open and bring the into the house. I thought it was way cool.
21. Gas station giveways -no specific recall
22. Free toasters - no specific memory
23. Car blanket - again, no particular recall, but I do remember my dad covering the car engine with a blanket under the car hood on really cold nights. Not sure if this was of any benefit, seeing as the engine would not have been generating any heat for the blanket to hold in. Occasionally, he’d forget to remove it.
24. Formica kitchen tables - of course
25. The Yellow Pages - “lets your fingers do the walking through the - Yellow Pa-ages!” 🎶

BidenRocks

(2,551 posts)
38. And a baby's arm holding an apple! The Tubes
Sat Oct 25, 2025, 08:43 PM
Oct 25

I think it was Price Club and Circuit City.
As a kid, I thought they were neat!

DinahMoeHum

(23,283 posts)
42. The pneumatic mail tube system, to the umpteenth degree. . .
Sat Oct 25, 2025, 08:50 PM
Oct 25

from the movie The Shadow (1994)



EverHopeful

(626 posts)
59. The pneumatic tubes also make an amusing appearance in the movie Paddington
Sun Oct 26, 2025, 01:30 AM
Oct 26

but I haven't figured out how to post a movie clip. Will maybe try to work that out later when I'm more awake.

Wicked Blue

(8,379 posts)
45. I used to feel old when I realized that my doctors were younger than me
Sat Oct 25, 2025, 08:59 PM
Oct 25

Now I feel incredibly old because my doctors are retiring.

MuseRider

(35,042 posts)
46. You bet!
Sat Oct 25, 2025, 09:00 PM
Oct 25

Those tubes were fascinating when little and fun if you could get a nice lady let you send a silly note to someone upstairs.

dflprincess

(29,095 posts)
48. My mother let me use her Green Stamps to get my first stereo
Sat Oct 25, 2025, 09:26 PM
Oct 25

and I still have a scar on my knee from where I sliced it open on milk box we had on the backstep where the milkman left the new bottles of milk.

We didn't have plastic furniture covers but one of my grandmas did.

Ocelot II

(128,411 posts)
50. We never had plastic covers either - Mom thought they were tacky - but we had neigbors who did.
Sat Oct 25, 2025, 09:30 PM
Oct 25

dsvajda

(27 posts)
52. There was a pretty famous rumor about S&H stamps in Saigon
Sat Oct 25, 2025, 09:53 PM
Oct 25

where it seemed that an entrepeneurial GI convinced some bars that that he was from the Dept of Sanitation and Health and the bar had to pay $50 to get the Departments approval to serve Americans and display the green S&H 50 stamp showing they had paid.

The foot xray was at our local Buster Brown shoe store.

rickford66

(6,015 posts)
56. The Fuller Brush Man
Sat Oct 25, 2025, 10:31 PM
Oct 25

Bakery delivery guy, radio dramas, comedies and soaps, human powered lawn mowers, five cent rubber ball, paint by numbers, cars with flower vases, everybody's phone number in your head, and so much more.

boonecreek

(1,321 posts)
57. Funny Green Stamp story.
Sun Oct 26, 2025, 12:45 AM
Oct 26

Like many people, my mother collected S&H Green Stamps. So anyway, there was
a redemption center at either a Wieboldt's or Goldblatt's store in the Lincoln & Belmont
shopping area on the north side of Chicago. One evening she and my father went to
redeem the stamp booklets which she kept in a brown paper bag. So they're going out
the back door and my mother grabs the first bag she sees. At the redemption center
she picks out what she wanted but noticed that the bag that supposedly had the booklets
in it had some grease spots. Embarrassed by this she dumped the bag out and half
a dozen chocolate donuts go rolling around the counter. The part that really frosted
my mom was that my dad stood there like he had no idea who this woman was.

EverHopeful

(626 posts)
60. Sending this post to my cousin
Sun Oct 26, 2025, 01:40 AM
Oct 26

Just the other day we were talking about how all the things we thought were so modern when we were kids, seem as old-fashioned to young people today as that old wind-up Victrola did to us when we were kids.

Sogo

(6,870 posts)
64. Yes, I remember all of them!
Sun Oct 26, 2025, 03:20 PM
Oct 26

Funny story about going to the drive in movie theater. The first time I ever went was with my cousins and siblings. It was "The Russians Are Coming; The Russians Are Coming." The person running the projector got reels 2 and three mixed up. We were all wondering what the heck was going on in the movie....IIRC, they stopped it after a while and got it straightened out. I was pretty young and only half remember....I should rent that movie sometime. I don't remember it at all.

LogDog75

(992 posts)
66. I remember all those items
Mon Oct 27, 2025, 12:28 AM
Oct 27

I have two metal ice trays I use. I bought them off Amazon a few years ago after the ice maker in my refrigerator went kaput. I have a new refrigerator without an ice maker which is why I have the ice trays.

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